


The advice of a stranger

by Bloody_no_Kissu



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Oni-chan au, a bit of lukanette was sneak in my fic, marinette needs someone to give her some sense, the fireman is replaced by an OC of mine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 00:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18954526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloody_no_Kissu/pseuds/Bloody_no_Kissu
Summary: "What the hell?!"The pigtailed girl turned to find a really tall woman looking at the tower with her mouth open, then looking at Marinette incredulous, before frowning at her.“What the hell, girl?”Marinette swallowed, apparently she was in trouble.





	The advice of a stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much to CobraOnTheCob for beta this chapter!  
> [Ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobraOnTheCob/pseuds/CobraOnTheCob)

Marinette proudly looked at the tower she had created with all the garbage bins she had found in the area. It was perfect, with this she could enter and save Adrien from the clutches of Lila.

Nodding decisively Marinette started up the first bins when a voice stopped and startling her.

"What the hell?!"

The pigtailed girl turned to find a really tall woman looking at the tower with her mouth open, then looking at Marinette incredulous, before frowning at her.

“What the hell, girl?”

Marinette swallowed, apparently she was in trouble.

***

"Will you tell me now why you tried to sneak into a house on that tower of death, girl?"

Marinette bit her lip, frowning at the woman in front of her.

The woman stood with her arms crossed looking at her with a raised eyebrow waiting for her response. She was really intimidating not only because of her height but also because of her sharp copper-colored eyes that seemed to pierce her soul, her hair was short and black except for a longer purple lock, she wore a gray shirt with motifs of blue flowers, a leather jacket and torn blue jeans pants with black boots.

The woman had made her put all the trash bins in its place, keeping an eye on her at all the time so she would not escape and now they were in a nearby park, with Marinette sitting on a bench and the woman still looking at her.

"Do you know that what you were about to do was not only going to get you in trouble, but that you could have hurt yourself?" the woman sighed, sitting down next to her. “If you do not tell me what you're planning, I'll call an officer to communicate with your parents.”

Before that threat, Marinette reacted.

“I-I was not planning anything bad!”

"Oh seriously? Because from my point of view, you seemed like you were about to sneak into a house to, I don’t know, the list of things that a stranger like me thought when I saw what you were doing is really long and most of them are not good things." The woman pulled out her phone for Marinette's great panic. “So you better tell me all, girl.”

And so Marinette told the woman everything, about Lila, about Adrien, about how her friends believed a liar and she was just trying to sneak in to get Lila away from Adrien.

When Marinette finished, they were silent for a few seconds, Marinette too nervous to look up.

"Is it really worth it?" The woman's voice was soft this time. Marinette looked up, seeing the woman looking at her with a much softer and more worried look this time.

“W-what?”

“Is it really worthwhile for you to go through all these problems for people who do not listen or do not support you?” repeated the woman.

"Of course!" Marinette rose from her seat, looking at the woman as if she were crazy, the woman only returned her gaze, still calm. "They are my friends! I can’t let a liar control them!"

“I can understand that, believe me. But from what you tell me about your friends, sorry to say it, they don’t look like very good friends." Marinette was about to object when the woman interrupted her. “Before answering, I want you to think about it.”

Marinette thought of Alya, how she was her best friend and she was always at her side supporting her, but then she thought of the weeks after Lila's arrival and how Alya took Lila's side in most cases. She thought of Nino, but quickly came to the conclusion that he would always be on Alya's side.

And Adrien...

“Adrien, he knows she's lying.”

“The boy you like? The guy who practically told you that the liar's feelings are more important than yours?”

“He did not say that!”

“According to my point of view and what you told me, it seems like that,” the woman patted the seat next to her, inviting her to sit her again.

Marinette did, but looked away from the woman beside her, a little hurt.

“I ask you again, is it worth it?”

"Evil triumphs when good people do nothing," Marinette looked up, defiant. The woman smiled, laughing softly.

"Wise words, but don’t let that way of thinking destroy you," The woman put her hand on her shoulder, giving her a kind but serious look. “It's good to fight for what is right, to fight to protect those you love, but never forget to fight for yourself too.”

“You are young, you will meet many people in your life, friends, enemies or simple acquaintances” The woman continued. “Some friends are just passengers or friendly acquaintances, some are toxic, and others will stay by your side all your life, and the latter are why you have to fight.”

Marinette looked down, felt a comforting pat from Tikki from her purse.

"They’re not bad people…"

"Someone can be toxic to another without being a bad person, especially when you never tell them ‘no’," clarified the woman. "If you want advice from a stranger…talk to your friends and tell them the things that bother you, and if they don’t want to listen or dismiss your opinion, well, meet other people, expand your social group, you don’t need to completely cut off your ties with your friends, but always think about how these people make you feel…which brings us to the boy you like."

"A-Adrien?!"

"How does he make you feel?"

"It's as if just being by his side took away my words, well literally, I'm not able to talk to him."

"I guess you haven’t spent much time with him, right?" The woman continued before Marinette could reply. "When was the last time you spent time together?"

Marinette was silent.

She couldn’t remember.

_ Do they spend time together? She and Adrien? _

Once when it was the video games contest, in which he went to her house to practice, or when Adrien accompanied her as her translator when her uncle was in Paris, but months had passed since then. The ice cream outing…no, wait, he didn’t show up…Oh! When both of them went to the cinema escaping from his fans!... although now that she thought about it, all those outings were a disaster.

The last time she and Adrien had spent time together was when the blonde asked her to accompany him on his date with Kagami.

"The look on your face tells me that it's been a while or…they were not very good times."

Marinette did not have an answer to that.

The truth is that no, she did not spend much time with Adrien, and he didn’t seem to search for her company often.

_ Were they even friends? _

"What you feel for him is love or simple obsession? Think deeply about it."

Marinette was slow to respond, but when she did, she felt lighter and at the same time as if she were sinking into a mess.

"It's…it's obsession," she answered sincerely.

The woman's smile grew brighter.

"It is good that you recognize it," when noticing the downcast look of the pigtailed girl, she continued. "But don’t be discouraged by that, you are young, and love is a complicated and difficult to understand feeling."

"And how does love feel? How will I know when I'm really in love?"

The woman was silent, thinking about her answer for a few moments.

"I guess…" She closed her mouth, not knowing what to say, "I guess it's different for everyone…but if I had to describe it, it's when you feel calm, safe… you can spend hours with that person and feel that it's only been minutes… just thinking about them makes you smile." She smiled, if Marinette had to guess the woman was thinking about the person who made her feel that way.

Marinette looked at the sky, thinking if there is someone who makes her feel that way.

Adrien made her feel nervous to the point where she could not think clearly, and she always is worried that everything would be perfect when talking to him.

Chat Noir… Chat Noir was complicated, he could be very sweet but many times his flirting and jokes got in the way of their work and if she was honest with herself, sometimes it made her feel uncomfortable.

_ Luka… _

Marinette smiled.

She had fun at his side, talking about everything and nothing or just spending time together each one wrapped in their passions. She felt calm with Luka and in the moments when Marinette was lost in her nerves and anxiety Luka was able to reassure her with a few words or the melody of his guitar.

She looked back at the woman; she was looking at her with a serene smile as if she knew that Marinette had reached her answer.

Before Marinette could thank her, there was a rumble in the vicinity. Both turned only to see an akuma.

"It's best that I get to safety!" Marinette shouted, going to find a place to be able to transform.

She had an Akuma to defeat.

***

After defeating the Akuma that day, which turned out to be Kagami, he went home reviewing his messages looking at the photo that caused the akumatization of Kagami, which was Lila taking a selfie of her and Adrien while she gave him a kiss.

 

***

Marinette thought that if she had seen that picture yesterday, she would have gone mad with rage, but now she looked at the photo and only felt a little sorrow for Adrien and how uncomfortable he looks.

_ "He really should tell Lila to stop if he's so uncomfortable..." _ Marinette was happy that she was never like this with Adrien, but maybe she should talk to him about it.

She decided to talk to Adrien tomorrow, along with Alya and Nino, she would follow the advice of the woman who stopped her from doing something silly and would talk to them.

She would tell Adrien that Lila's lies were hurting too many people and that if they were not going to confront her at least they could both warn their friends, she would also talk about the limits of people and it was good to say no to someone's advances if they were bothering him.

She would tell Alya and Nino that her life didn’t revolve around a boy (at least not anymore) and that she would like them to have more faith in her and not be branded as a jealous girl right away.

If they did not listen, well, she would also follow the advice that woman gave her. It would hurt to get away from them, but Marinette was determined to be respected and to be heard.

With a smile, she entered the bakery, about to greet her parents, when someone interrupted her.

“Girl!”

Marinette looked surprised at the woman, who was buying some macaroons and other blue sweets. His mother behind the cashier looked at them.

"What are you doing here?" Marinette asked reflexively, the woman laughed and points at the candy box.

"Buying a gift for my wife, she loves the blue color, so I decided to get some blue sweets", The woman had a soft smile on her face when talking about her wife.

"Marinette? Do you know her?" Sabine had a curious look at the exchange, her gaze moving from her daughter to the stranger woman.

"Oh! Yes! She is..."

"Brenda, my name is Brenda," the woman- no, Brenda, approached Marinette offering her hand in a greeting.

Marinette took it without hesitation, shaking her hand in a strong grip like Brenda.

"My name is Marinette, it’s a pleasure and - and thank you very much for the advice I will try to follow."

"I'm glad, I wouldn’t like to see you getting into trouble..." she ducked until she was at Marinette's face to whisper, winking , "... again"

Marinette laughed, looking at her mother hoping she hadn’t heard that.

An alarm sounded from one of the pockets of Brenda's jacket, she takes out a cell phone, reading a message quickly.

"Oh, I have to go if I don’t want to be late," she turned to Sabine, paying her purchase and with the bag in hand, she went to the door.

"I'm glad I could help, Marinette," Brenda gave her one last smile before leaving the bakery.

"And how did you meet Brenda, Marinette?" Sabine looked at her smiling daughter, curious but happy to see her smile after what seemed like a tough few weeks for her daughter.

"I met her in the plaza, she helped me to realize certain things," Marinette replied with a smile as she went to her room, decided to change things for the better.


End file.
